Debra McNaughton’s story appears in the DAILY MAIL newspaper…

* She wed her partner, planned her funeral and sorted memory boxes for the kids.

* Then one night she googled a cure on the internet and is now cancer free. Debra says her story proves patients must always seek a second medical opinion…

Mum of three Debra McNaughton, 39, is celebrating a New Year she never thought she’d have.

Eighteen months ago on her youngest child’s first birthday, she was given the worst news possible. She had cancer – there was no cure and it was terminal.

Her consultant told her to go away and enjoy what remained of the rest of her life – saying she had a 50/50 chance at best of surviving the next two years – and she might only have months.

The news was a bombshell. In a hurried ceremony arranged in just six weeks Debra got married. Meanwhile, she sat her kids down to break the terrible news to them that mummy was dying – and began making heart-rending memory boxes for her children aged 16, 15 and one.

Then one night she googled her rare appendix cancer and stumbled on a specialist centre in the UK that had helped in similar cases.

Her GP agreed it could give her the chance to save her life and did the referral for her.

And a few weeks later, in July 2012 she underwent 14-hour surgery at the Christie hospital in Manchester.

After the op, the surgeon told her the tumour in her appendix had grown so large, had she not had the surgery she would have been dead within weeks.

Her nightmare wasn’t over – after the operation it was discovered the cancer had spread into her lymph nodes – and she still feared last Christmas would be the final one.

But following six months of chemotherapy in April 2013 she was given the all-clear. Incredibly – against all the odds – she is now cancer free, has been told she has a 50 per cent chance of long term survival. Against all the odds, she is celebrating a New Year she never thought she’d see.

Debra knows there is a high chance her cancer could return but as any mum knows, any time with your children is precious and every extra day is a day she gets to spend with her family.

We are delighted to have gained Debra coverage in the Daily Mail and are delighted to announce we have now placed Debra’s amazing story with a further publication.

For more information on appendix cancers to go pseudomyxomasurvivor.co.uk (run by Dawn Green whose story Featureworld placed in a national newspaper, magazines and on TV many years ago!)

Author: Alison Smith-Squire

Alison Smith-Squire is a media agent selling stories to newspapers, magazines and TV for the ordinary person. She runs website Featureworld.co.uk and online writers' ezine, sellyourstoryuk.com
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